I don’t get. Why do fighters that are current world champions or one or two fights away from fighting for a world title sign with Golden Boy Promotions?
Obviously for money. But why Golden Boy?
Golden Boy is like the pro football team that desperately signs free agents or the college team that signs and relies on junior college prospects. Golden Boy, as far as I can see, hasn’t developed one prospect from say six or eight round fighters and turned them into serious champions since they have been in existence.
Does Golden Boy offer a Cadillac health plan that covers pre-existing conditions?
Now, I will admit if they can “churn’em and burn’em,” that is, enough prospects continuously, their business theory may prove sound.
Is the equity in Golden Boy merely flash and junk bonds? Is there stability or do they just keep digging up new bodies because they have so many TV dates to continuously fill?
All in all, right now, Golden Boy now has a gold mine of younger talent that has to be respected.
Does it rival that of Top Rank? Time will tell.
While Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright are still making curtain calls, Golden Boy is trying to get younger.
Victor Ortiz certainly is still only a prospect. When in a serious fight (Marcos Maidana) he fell apart from the stress and may never make it back to his previous interim artificial heights.
James Kirkland has to be considered “iffy” at best to make it back and stay on the legal straight and narrow when he comes back from his most recent prison stint.
Amir Khan, 23, and with a 22-1 (16 KO’s) record, has thrown a good body of work away and now has to trust matchmakers he’s never worked with before and that alone could be treacherous. He was the big fish in the pond of Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren but now just another poodle in a puppy mill with Golden Boy.
The World Boxing Association junior welterweight (140 lbs.) champion has made only one title defense and is being put in against a long-time Golden Boy fighter in Juan Manual Marquez.
If Khan can handle Marquez on May 15, I would be quite impressed but not so surprised. 140 is too heavy and big for Marquez. The Mayweather fight proved that and he’s now almost 37 and near the end of his boxing usefulness.
Does it make sense that Freddie Roach trains Manny Pacquiao for Bob Arum to promote while he trains Khan, a sparring mate and friend of Pacquiao, for Golden Boy?
Golden Boy seems to believe if they sign enough fighters one of them has to hit it big.
Top Rank seems to have a much broader commitment to its Hispanic fighters as far as exposure on television from basic cable to pay per view. The fan base grows with this type of marketing and it allows the pay-per-view paydays to happen much easier.
What does Mexican welterweight contender Saul “Canelo” Alvarez see in Golden Boy? A future fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr? Trust me Floyd’s not going anywhere, win or lose against Shane Mosley.
I’m going to watch carefully the twists and turns of Olympian Deontay Wilder and further developed Daniel Jacobs and see what if anything Golden Boy does with them.
Cuban Erislandy Lara, a welterweight, was brought over to Golden Boy via Germany and while he has may have the most talent and promise of any Golden Boy fighter, is still a project.
Wilder, Jacobs, Lara, and Danny Garcia are either Olympians or have had serious amateur experience and coaching. This is one recruiting class haul and three years from now I’ll read the column again and see if my theories pan out or not.
Throw into the mix new WBA Heavyweight Champion David Haye. “The Hayemaker,” who has an easy mandatory against Golden Boy’s John Ruiz and Haye will then land one of the Klitschko brothers and he would then suck all the air out of any room he is in.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. even pays Golden Boy big bucks to negotiate contracts for him.
Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins have a couple of points of ownership in Golden Boy.
It seems as if Golden Boy has too many young stars for its own good and some are quietly going to feel abandoned or at least starving for attention.
I believe Ortiz and Roberto Guerrero get to much attention and it may be time for them to step aside for Danny Garcia and Vanes Martirosyan.
Maybe I’m wrong and it’s good to have all these little drama’s going on all at once. If even half of these younger fighters don’t make it I believe they would have to be considered flops.
As I said Golden Boy has bought all these fighters with contract bonuses and hasn’t developed any of them themselves.
